Highlights of the Week, Obligations, No Thank You to Certain Foods

Hi Friends! How’s Your Saturday going? We got our day off to a bright and early start with Bagels and Brew. Coffee, not beer! One Saturday per month our home owner’s association has free gluten and caffeine… haha! So while Skylar and Scott got in on some bagels, I stuck with the coffee. Then I lifted and we are about to go for a walk as a family. After that, I have something really fun planned that I will share on Monday! Til then, it’s time to get started on the Highlights of the Week.

She went for the raw veggies and fruit, minimal cheese, and took a pass on the fried egg rolls and the sweets table with the exception of a brownie that the hostess literally shoved in her mouth.Grrrr.

All in all, Intuitive Eating at it’s finest. Click Here to read my thoughts on kids intuitively choosing healthy foods over junk, most of the time.

Have you ever had other people (usually women) give you dirty looks or stare you up and down for your attire? Does that make you Happy (happy because you know it means you’re standing out and probably looking pretty good!) Or Irritated?Are you guilty of ever having given a few crusty evil glances to someone else?

I have had more evil glances shot my way that you can shake a stick at. I am tall 5’11” + shoes = 6’3″ or so when I go out and definitely stand out in a crowd.Long legs, blond hair, yeah, I get a few nasty looks.I think all women are beautiful and really don’t get the whole jealousy thing. Trust me honey, I don’t want your man. One’s plenty!

I think, sadly, women are so uber-competitive and rather than celebrating each other’s beauty and positive attributes, we tend to hate, not appreciate. Not a good thing and I am trying so hard with Skylar to not speak ill of someone, not be negative, not trash on another person’s image. But if you’re wearing plaid pants and a striped shirt, and are more along the lines of a Glamour Magazine “Don’t” I will probably laugh though…haha!Have you ever been the recipient of some evil looks or given any out? What was the situation or what were you/the other person wearing?

I got to thinking that smoothie bars can get away with charging and arm and a leg for smoothies, which have very inexpensive ingredients, i.e. fresh or frozen produce, but because we don’t want the mess or hassle of it in our house, most people will pay way too much for smoothies and let someone else make them. Solution? Set Up An In-Home Smoothie Bar!

Are You Close with your Mom?Have you always been close with your mom? Do you have a good relationship with your parents? Did you ever go through a phase, like high school maybe, where you weren’t as close but it’s better now? If you are close with you mom or your parents, what is the number one or two things they do as parents that help make you feel close to them? i.e. not flying off the handle if you were honest about underage drinking or allowing you the space to fail and not try to “protect” you from mistakes, or what have the really done “right” to foster a close relationship now that you’re an adult?I’m all ears!I loved everyone’s stories! Thank you for sharing them!

Short Order CookI am a high raw vegan, and that dietary path unfolded for me largely based on food allergies and intolerances. Once I realized this path works for me and that I feel optimally this way, then it’s easy to keep doing what works. If you want answers to the most common questions people ask me about food allergies and high raw veganism, check out This Post.

However, the flip side of my path is that it’s narrower than Scott or Skylar “have” to eat. They can eat gluten or shellfish, I don’t want to and can’t. Therefore, there are times when I will cook things for them that I cannot or choose not eat. Like on Thanksgiving.

Thanks for letting me know if you’re a Short Order Cook, or not. Some of you don’t have families or it’s just you and your significant other, but it was great to hear how you handle either making separate food and entrees for those you’re cooking for, or not.

“Everyone asks us how we met. I was working at a bar in Chicago, and Scott used to come into the bar and after a year of coming into the bar and talking with me, he asked me out. I used to get asked out all the time, like ten times a day, and always said no. But for whatever reason, when he asked me if I would like to go out on a date, I just blurted out, Yes! We exchanged numbers and he said, ok I will pick you up at your place in a week and we’ll go out.

The week went by and I was super excited for my date. He picked me up, and planted this huge kiss on me within seconds of seeing me. Like whoa, dude. Chill. But I went with it…”

Do you think monogamy is natural? Is it a natural state for you? Is it a natural state for any of us? This is such a loaded question because although I have been in a committed partnership for 10 years, I don’t believe that monogamy is necessarily natural. It’s what we “do” as a society, and many people do it successfully, and although I have done it for 10 years, and I do think that Scott and I will always be together, I don’t necessarily think that all peopleare destined to be monogamous and with the same person forever.

And no, that doesn’t mean that cheating if you’re in a committed relationship is acceptable. I don’t condone cheating, ever. But I think some people are more destined to spend 5 years with someone, 3 alone, then 7 years with a partner, 6 alone, type of thing. Serial monogamy perhaps is more “natural” for some people and as long as all parties know what they’re in for, that can work for them.

I believe that some people are simply wired to be in committed relationships for a few years or even a decade, but then, they need to move on. Each person in the relationship changes and the dynamics change and they are no longer right for each other. Serial monogamy. A series of monogamous relationships, but not a singular lifetime partner. Isn’t this where the term the Seven Year Itch came from?

It was great reading all your diverse thoughts on this in the comments!

I wonder why no one from Hers contacted me that they were going to use my recipe, reprinted in entirety on their site? One thing that has been troubling me is this paragraph:

“The following recipe was submitted by our forum member GFRAAST who is based in Austria! Her submission is kicking off a new contest we have started for our forum members. Each month we will choose one of their recipes to post online!! We want to encourage you to try the recipe for yourselves and send us your feedback!! At the end of the year, we will ask our readers which recipe was the most POPULAR one submitted, and the forum member with the winning recipe will win a nutrition related prize!”

The person named “GFRAAST” copied and pasted my recipe and if it’s chosen as the winner, I as the Creator of the Recipe should get a prize, not the person who figured out how to copy and paste!If you go to their site, yes, my recipe is linked back to my site with a tiny, itty bitty link.If it wasn’t I would have been really upset. I wrote quite extensively about what’s proper etiquette for linking back to others, in This Post. The overwhelming majority of people said: You must link back, Don’t Reprint a Recipe in It’s Entirety, just Link It and that way if your readers want the recipe, they must come to the original author’s site to get it.

However, the Hers Magazine situation begs the question, is everything on the internet from food blogs and recipes to music to graphics to pictures to anyone’s creative, original, intellectual property, fair game for others to copy, paste, take and then do whatever they wish with it?I can argue both sides to this: You put it out there so yes, it can be taken, used, and there’s simply no recourse once it’s on the internet.

Or…

This is a violation of Copyright at the Worst, and at the least, shady and unethical to copy, paste and submit something to try to win a prize based on a submission that wasn’t your own.

Yoga Today is Camel (Ustrasana).Open your heart chakra, let the love in.And give extra special thanks & gratitude to the Universe this week for all the lovely blessings you DO HAVE in your life today!Even if life isn’t perfect, there’s always something to be grateful for. What are you grateful for today?

Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

Questions1. Best Thing You’ve Ate or Done So Far This Weekend?Me = Getting Spray Tanned and I am looking nice and tan but not orange at all. More on Why I got spray tanned on Monday…

2. I think this is going to be my last Highlights of the Week Post. I have tried to scale these posts back but that has not worked out very well since I have diarrhea of the mouth! I am spending far too much time on them and so, with that, I am going to let the “obligation” of doing these postsgo.

If I do one in the future, great. And if not, oh well. That’s why there’s a sidebar widget on the right-hand margin with my 7 most recent posts so everyone can view them that way. Plus, I have a search box on the top and also a monthly archive list of posts on the right hand margin as well.

I have to say, letting go of this self-imposed obligation already feels great for next week!

What have you let go of that you used to feel obligated to do? Or what would things are you trying to let go of feeling obligated to do?Things like making homemade cakes vs. storeboughts, standing up for yourself and saying no to things that people ask you to do or participate in, not working out if you don’t feel like it… are all things that come to mind as “obligations” that I have let go of. What obligations have you let go of or are trying to let go of?

3. Pool or Ocean?As a kid, I loved pools and oceans were a little less fun. As an adult, I love either.But, I must take a rinse-off shower immediately after exiting the ocean. The feeling of salt-water drying on my skin skeeves me. I know, it’s my quirk. Any plans to go swimming any time soon?Pool or ocean?

4. What do you do when someone literally forces food into your child’s mouth or tries to guilt you as an adult into consuming a certain food that you personally find inappropriate for whatever your reasons are?

For the non-parents, you may think that you’re going to raise your child to only eat organic lentils and raw veggies but most of the world has a different view of what “kid’s should eat”. Hot dogs, brownies, soda, and chips.

I ate some of those things as a child, and I lived, but I don’t feed those foods to Skylar and I hate it when everyone from the bank teller forcing lollipops to party hostess’ forcing sweets on a 3 year old. Yes, it’s “just” a small brownie, but she’s 3. Pound for pound, one brownie for her is like us eating half a pan.

The way I see it there are actually two issues at play: Food choices that I don’t condone. (The food choices are the easier of the two-fold issue for me. It’s a one-time deal, she won’t have that food at our house, she’ll live and so will I albeit a little ticked off that another adult undermined my parenting, but whatever, it’s done and over with. I’ve posted here before about my non-mainstream choices. They work for us and we are happy!)

The harder issue is how to tell someone tactfully, but firmly, no thank you! I have found that if I say no thank you, they think I can be “talked into” a yes, she can have it or that if they badger me long enough, I’ll dig into a plate of meatballs or gluten-containing bread or dip with dairy in it.

Or, they think I am an ogre for not allowing Skylar to partake in xyz junky food they are pushing.People can’t seem to take No Thank You at face value. They either act all put-out and offended or just keep on pushing the crap food thinking they are going to “change my mind” on the matter.

I know some people say “my child’s allergic” to that to avoid the offending foods being pushed. However, as a person with extensive food allergies, I believe that white lying about that somewhat undermines and mitigates the severity and very real issues that people with food allergies and intolerances face.

What do you say to someone when you just don’t want to eat a particular food they “think you should”? Either for yourself or for your child? Does simply saying “No Thank You” work for you?